Today The Pokémon Company releases the TCG’s latest special set, Shrouded Fable. It introduces Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s strangest monster, Area Zero’s Pecharunt, who works in tandem with Teal Mask’s Loyal Three, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti. Which must be a whole lot of nonsense if you didn’t play the most…
Today The Pokémon Company releases the TCG’s latest special set, Shrouded Fable. It introduces Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s strangest monster, Area Zero’s Pecharunt, who works in tandem with Teal Mask’s Loyal Three, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti. Which must be a whole lot of nonsense if you didn’t play the most…
Harrison Ford may not have taken a crash course in the lore of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he seems to have had a good time taking on the role of President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in the upcoming film Captain America: Brave New World, which is set to reach theatres on February 14, 2025 – and he also appeared to have a blast while promoting the film at the recent San Diego Comic-Con. As given away in the film’s teaser trailer and on the teaser poster (seen at the bottom of this article), Ross transforms into the Red Hulk at some point in the movie, a fact that inspired Ford to do a Hulk roar when he took the stage at Comic-Con. Ford also did the motion capture performance for the Red Hulk, a process that he described as “being an idiot for money.”
While speaking with Variety, Ford was asked what it took for him to do that mo-cap performance. He replied, “What did it take? It took not caring. It took being an idiot for money, which I’ve done before. I don’t mean to disparage it. I’m just saying you have to do certain things that normally your mother would not want you to do — or your acting coach, if you had one. But it’s fun, and I enjoyed it. I had a great time, and I’m delighted at the response that we got with the trailer.“
When Screen Rant asked him what it’s like to join the MCU, Ford answered, “It’s a whole different cut of cloth, isn’t it? Free of some normal constraints to the imagination. It’s delightful to deal with and it’s fun. The people I worked with were fantastic. The director, Julius Onah, did a terrific job. Mr. [Anthony] Mackie is great fun to work with. We had a good time. I enjoyed it.“
Here’s the official information on Captain America: Brave New World, straight from Marvel: Anthony Mackie returns as the high-flying hero, who’s officially taken up the mantle of Captain America. Harrison Ford makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as newly-elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, a role originated by the late William Hurt. Ross and Sam have a bit of a history: In his previous role as Secretary of State, Ross was responsible for arresting Sam and his fellow Avengers during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Now as president, Ross is eager to work with Sam, hoping to make Captain America an official military position. But that tentative alliance is jeopardized when Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident, with friend and retired super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) as the prime suspect. Sam’s investigation send him on a dangerous chase, and (leading to) a deadly showdown and a tease of the menacing Red Hulk. Danny Ramirez returns as former Air Force lieutenant Joaquin Torres, who’s picked up Sam’s old wings and taken on the role of Falcon. Tim Blake Nelson is also back as Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader, appearing in the MCU for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. New to the cast is Shira Haas, who joins as Ruth Bat-Seraph. A former Black Widow, Ruth is now a high-ranking U.S. government official who has the trust of President Ross. Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, and Xosha Roquemore also star. The film is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore. Louis D’Esposito and Charles Newirth serve as executive producers.
Are you looking forward to watching Harrison Ford play President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross and the Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Comedies, like horror movies, were usually an easy bet in Hollywood with the way their budgets could be kept humble and still end up being big moneymakers. Movies like Borat or Judd Apatow movies or the 21 Jump Street films could compete with summer tentpole films, and while there would still be an occasional R-rated comedy released here and there, they seem to be emigrating to mostly streamers. Vince Vaughn would be a name who you would usually see on the marquee for these R-rated comedy releases. The star of Swingers, Old School and Wedding Crashers would appear on the latest episode of Hot Ones, where he explained how Hollywood shuns his brand of irreverent comedies.
According to Deadline, as Vaughn took the hot wings challenge, he would explain, “They just overthink it. And it’s like, it’s crazy, you get these rules, like, if you did geometry, and you said 87 degrees was a right angle, then all your answers are messed up, instead of 90 degrees. So there became some idea or concept, like, they would say something like, ‘You have to have an IP.’”
Vaughn would then cite Battleship as meaningless IP that studios only used as a “vehicle for storytelling” just because it was a recognizable name. He would go on to say that life experience was a bigger draw for storytelling back when he started to break into the business, as juxtaposed to today’s studio mindset, “The people in charge don’t want to get fired more so than they’re looking to do something great, so they want to kind of follow a set of rules that somehow get set in stone, that don’t really translate. But as long as they follow them, they’re not going to lose their job because they can say, ’Well, look, I made a movie off the board game Payday, so even though the movie didn’t work, you can’t let me go, right?’”
The star of the upcoming show Bad Monkey does feel optimistic about comedy’s future at the cinema, “People want to laugh, people want to look at stuff that feels a little bit like it’s, you know, dangerous or pushing the envelope,” Vaughn said. “I think you’re going to see more of it in the film space sooner than later, would be my guess.”
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Plot: Delve further into the mythology and madness of Zack Snyder’s epic sci-fi saga in the viciously sexier, bloodier world of Rebel Moon — Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Rebel Moon – Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness. In Snyder’s director’s cut, a peaceful settlement on a moon in the furthest reaches of the universe finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, and Kora, a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival. Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Motherworld, Kora assembles a small band of warriors — outsiders, insurgents, peasants, and orphans of war who share a common need for redemption and revenge. As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a new army of heroes is formed.
Review: Like Michael Bay before him, Zack Snyder does not follow the credo of “less is more.” Almost every movie Snyder has made boasted a director’s cut billed as the definitive vision of the story he aimed to tell. While extended cuts can often restore sequences and subplots that detracted from the theatrical version’s flow, fewer have improved a movie or been more than a cinematic curiosity. After the campaign to get Zack Snyder’s original vision for Justice League was successful, the filmmaker’s next project was Rebel Moon. A gritty space opera in the vein of Star Wars, Rebel Moon was already two movies when it was revealed that extended versions would come our way before the year was out. While our own Chris Bumbray liked Part One: A Child of Fire more than Part Two: The Scargiver, most critics were not nearly as kind. Now, four months after the second film’s premiere, Netflix has unveiled the R-rated director’s cuts of both films. Retitled and with more than two hours of added footage, Rebel Moon has transformed from a decent sci-fi epic into an overlong but still decent sci-fi epic, albeit one with a lot more viscera and nipples on display.
I watched both Rebel Moon director’s cuts for this review, now subtitled Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness. Most of the new footage is in the first film, increasing the running time by seventy minutes to just under three and a half hours. Overall, the plot and narrative flow of both films remain the same, with the added footage comprised of a new twenty-minute opening sequence in the first film, a fully nude sex scene in each movie, the rearrangement of the village training and harvest sequence with one part moved to the first film, several expanded flashbacks, and of course buckets of blood. I went as far as watching the original and extended cuts side by side to determine where the main changes are and was a bit surprised about some of the odd decisions Zack Snyder made in what he included in each version. Surprisingly, the extended cut did not improve the film experience for me, proving why longer and more explicit does not always mean better. It also illustrates that between both versions of the two movies, some choices work better than others.
The core narrative remains the same: Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former soldier of the Imperium, is hiding out on the moon of Veldt as a farmer. When the sadistic Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) comes to the village demanding their harvest and kills the town leader, Kora and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) set out to recruit warriors to defend their land. In the extended cut of the first film, there is a new opening scene that flashes back to the recruitment of soldier Aris (Sky Yang), which ties into more sequences of the young man’s courtship of villager Sam (Charlotte Maggi). The scene boasts a gnarly head bashing that is shown explicitly, followed by a recurring motif involving an unexplained collage made of teeth. This dental MacGuffin recurs throughout the director’s cuts with no reference to its purpose outside of being sadistic and weird. Much of the new material feels that way, mostly comprised of the laser blast deaths in the theatrical cut, which now include poorly animated blood splatter that cascades across the slow-motion frame like a Jackson Pollock painting. There are also balletic explosions of skulls that occur no less than fifty-five times through the two movies. The first few were gnarly, but by the double-digit mark, they were boring and unoriginal. This cut is chock full of stabbings, throat slitting, and buckets of CGI blood, which eventually add up to the majority of the extended footage.
The film also does away with the majority of Anthony Hopkins’ narration despite additional scenes peppered throughout the film, showing Jimmy gathering his new adornments as he prepares for battle. The extended cuts are favorable to many supporting characters, including Titus (Djimon Honsou), Milius (Elise Duffy), Tarak (Staz Nair), and Nemesis (Doona Bae), all of whom get added footage to their backstory sequences in Chapter Two. Milius has added scenes where the original cut had her talking about it. The other additions to the Director’s Cuts are two extended sex scenes and some female nudity in the new opening of the first movie. Both sex scenes involve Sofia Boutella. One is hinted at in the original cut as we see Kora and Gunnar nude in bed after making love, but the other comes early in the first movie and feels very out of place. It is well shot despite having no purpose other than showing some skin.
The other substantial change between the films, as teased in the Director’s Cut trailer, is the living core of the dreadnought ships. We see the female visage, reminiscent of H.R. Giger in visual design, at the end of the second movie and a disconnected reference by the King (Cary Elwes) to the “Kali.” Still, the extended cuts reveal that these giant robot-like entities are living beings able to emote and speak. It is a cool yet still underbaked plot element that feels added in without much explanation. The same can be said for the expanded flashbacks, which boast a lot more gory bloodshed and add details to the path of Balisarius (Fra Fee) from soldier to despotic leader. Several years younger than Sofia Boutella, Fee never quite becomes the brooding shadow of a major villain that Zack Snyder wants to make him out to be. Still, the attempt is clearly meant to mimic Star Wars and Emperor Palpatine.
Snyder makes a couple of shifts in structure, mostly in Chapter Two. These involve moving the training of the villagers to after-the-harvest sequences rather than intercutting them. This makes them feel sequential but also puts a lot more focus on slow-motion shots of wheat being cut, bundled, and hauled back to the village. I stopped counting after fifteen minutes, but there is a lot of farming porn added to the film. Cumulatively, the biggest chunk of the two hours added to Rebel Moon is the opening of both films, the new closing scene of the second film, two sex scenes, and some flashback moments. These add up to roughly an hour, with the remaining sixty minutes and seconds trimmed from virtually every action sequence and death shot, now focused on showing blood flowing artistically across the screen. When comparing the two versions of each film, it is easy to see that the initially released versions leave more to the imagination. In contrast, the Director’s Cut forces us to drown in bright red pixelated plasma.
Director’s cuts are intended to serve as the true vision the filmmaker set out to make, but in the case of Rebel Moon, it feels as if the original versions were better than what Zack Snyder was aiming for. Very little of the new footage registers as an improvement over what we already saw, with the sex scenes and exploding heads merely gratuitous. Taken as two halves of a single story, the first part remains the stronger of the two chapters. The films still hinge on the charisma of Sofia Boutella and rooting for opposing sides in an outer space power struggle that feels more complicated than it needs to be. The additional backstory of the mechanical beings that power the massive dreadnoughts and a new closing scene set up more stories in the Rebel Moon universe. Still, it served more as tacked-on footage for a film that did not need more padding. The Rebel Moon director’s cut detracts from the integrity of the original cuts by making audiences slog through six hours of visuals with only four hours of story.
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PLOT: A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they’ve entered the center of a dark and sinister event.
REVIEW: Is there a filmmaker more polarizing than M. Night Shyamalan? It seems as though everyone has an opinion, even if they haven’t seen the film in question. And if there’s one thing Shyamalan is good at: it’s coming up with a good hook. A child that sees dead people, a secret superhero, or a beach that rapidly ages you are just a few of many of his interesting concepts. Yet in recent years, the execution has left a lot to be desired. So stepping firmly into the horror genre, does Trap manage to stick the landing? Well…
Trap follows a serial killer, Cooper (Hartnett), and his daughter Riley as they’re attending a Lady Raven concert (think Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo). But when he’s there he finds out that the FBI has set up a sting operation at the concert in order to catch a serial killer known as The Butcher. Only one problem: Cooper is the Butcher. And as cool as that setup is, it’s hard not to think about those recent failures in execution. And I think those insecurities play out on screen, with Trap never really knowing what kind of film it wants to be. Does it want to focus on this scary killer or does it want to be about a pop star? The PG-13 rating probably answers that for you.
This is an absolute showcase for Josh Hartnett‘s acting skills. The trailers made it obvious that he would impress but it’s remarkable the amount of range he’s able to display. His interactions with his daughter (played by Ariel Donoghue) set up a father who would do anything for his daughter. The first twenty minutes could almost convince you that there’s no way this guy could do anything bad. Yet when Harnett turns it on, it’s downright terrifying. He goes from jovial to menacing in an instant. How he’s able to manipulate people from one moment to the next really makes The Butcher all the more scary. Just wish we could have seen him more in action.
I knew going into this that one of two things would happen: either M Night really did his homework and thought of logical ways for someone to hide at a concert or we’re going to get a bunch of convoluted ways for someone to just barely escape police custody time and time again. I’m sure you can imagine which one Mr. Shyamalan took. And I’m not a total hater: there are some good things to like about this movie. Some genuinely funny moments help to ease the tension. But ultimately, we’re sitting and waiting for a terrible person to get caught. It makes the stakes absurdly messy.
Now it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. It’s hard to watch this movie and not feel like it’s a total vanity project. Casting his daughter Saleka as Lady Raven was always going to draw the nepo baby criticism. In many ways, Trap feels like it was made just so Saleka could live out her pop star dreams. With a lot more screen time than you’d expect, and all of the Lady Raven music written and performed by her, there’s a lot riding on her shoulders. And while the singing is fine on a technical level, she really doesn’t have that popstar aura to her. The lyrics are generic and don’t really connect in a way that I’d see teenage girls freaking out over. She seems nervous on stage and like she’s trying to hit her cues. And the more she has to do acting-wise, the less convincing she is. However, I did get a kick out of M Night appearing as her Uncle. That man always manages to find a cameo.
Kid Cudi has a very fun part as The Thinker, an eccentric musician with platinum blonde hair. He was clearly having a blast and I wanted more of him as he gave the film that larger-than-life persona it desperately needed. Alison Pill was probably my second favorite performance in the film next to Hartnett and is further proof that this woman needs to be hired more. I wasn’t a massive fan of the inclusion of an FBI profiler since it just felt like a way to exposition dump. And her connections with Lady Raven were eye-roll-inducing.
A good chunk of the film takes place at the Lady Raven concert and it’s hard not to be distracted by the aesthetic. Like when your favorite sitcom attends a concert, there’s something off about how it all looks. The audience feels very staged and the performance on stage comes across as vapid. If anything, this gives me more of an appreciation for those great concert films that properly nail the emotion of the moment.
Despite my negativity in this review, I didn’t outright hate Trap. The performances from both Hartnett and Pill are worth the price of admission. I could watch those two act in an empty room and be entertained. I’m just sick of Shyamalan creating these great concepts and being so incapable of sticking the landing. For every great moment in Trap, there’s an illogical one that feels like it was written by a teenager. Unless something changes, I think I may be done with Shyamalan in the theater.
TRAP IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON AUGUST 2ND, 2024.
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Marvel fans got a big surprise at San Diego Comic-Con when it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be playing Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Keeping such a big secret was certainly a challenge, and it turns out that Robert Downey Jr. didn’t even spill the beans to his fellow Avengers, with Jeremy Renner telling US Weekly, “The son of a bitch didn’t say anything to me!“
“I had no idea. The son of a bitch didn’t say anything to me,” Renner said. “We’re good friends. There’s the Avengers family chat. The original six. He said not a peep. I got online and started blowing up his phone like, ‘What’s going on? You’ve been hiding this from us the whole time?’ It’s exciting news. I’m really, really excited about it.“
As for whether Renner might return as Hawkeye in Avengers: Doomsday and/or Avengers: Secret Wars, he wouldn’t give a definite answer, but it seems likely. “You got Downey back in the mix, you got the Russo Brothers back in the mix. This is a direction where Marvel is going to do well,” Renner said. “The Avengers movies have always been fan favorites and there’s so many wonderful characters in them. I think it’s going to be challenging to get everyone together. There’s a lot of people. But I am excited about it. We’ll see. I think we’ll probably be doing it. It’s all brand new. They just made the announcement. They got to start figuring it out.“
Renner isn’t the only Marvel actor to comment on Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom news, as Jonathan Majors recently said that he was “heartbroken” to be replaced as Marvel’s big bad. Majors added that he “loves” the character of Kang, but “Doctor Doom is wicked.” When asked if he would still want to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kang, Majors said, “Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I love him. I love Kang. If that’s what the fans want, and that’s what Marvel wants, then let’s roll. Hell yeah.“
Avengers: Doomsday is slated for a May 1, 2026 release, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.
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Marvel fans got a big surprise at San Diego Comic-Con when it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be playing Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Keeping such a big secret was certainly a challenge, and it turns out that Robert Downey Jr. didn’t even spill the beans to his fellow Avengers, with Jeremy Renner telling US Weekly, “The son of a bitch didn’t say anything to me!“
“I had no idea. The son of a bitch didn’t say anything to me,” Renner said. “We’re good friends. There’s the Avengers family chat. The original six. He said not a peep. I got online and started blowing up his phone like, ‘What’s going on? You’ve been hiding this from us the whole time?’ It’s exciting news. I’m really, really excited about it.“
As for whether Renner might return as Hawkeye in Avengers: Doomsday and/or Avengers: Secret Wars, he wouldn’t give a definite answer, but it seems likely. “You got Downey back in the mix, you got the Russo Brothers back in the mix. This is a direction where Marvel is going to do well,” Renner said. “The Avengers movies have always been fan favorites and there’s so many wonderful characters in them. I think it’s going to be challenging to get everyone together. There’s a lot of people. But I am excited about it. We’ll see. I think we’ll probably be doing it. It’s all brand new. They just made the announcement. They got to start figuring it out.“
Renner isn’t the only Marvel actor to comment on Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom news, as Jonathan Majors recently said that he was “heartbroken” to be replaced as Marvel’s big bad. Majors added that he “loves” the character of Kang, but “Doctor Doom is wicked.” When asked if he would still want to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kang, Majors said, “Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I love him. I love Kang. If that’s what the fans want, and that’s what Marvel wants, then let’s roll. Hell yeah.“
Avengers: Doomsday is slated for a May 1, 2026 release, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.
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For many, Kevin Conroy is, and always will be, the definitive voice of Batman. After all, the late actor voiced the character across TV, movies, and video games for three decades. Truly a tough act for anyone to follow, which Batman: Caped Crusader star Hamish Linklater discovered when he was trying to find his Batman voice and found himself unconsciously imitating Kevin Conroy.
While speaking with GamesRader+, Linklater explained that he quickly realized that he couldn’t just do an imitation of Conroy. “I grew up as a massive fan of Batman: The Animated Series and Kevin Conroy was like the voice of my god in my head, but I hadn’t seen the series in a minute when I got the audition,” Linklater said. “I was sitting in my car with my phone and I beat it to death, I kept going back and listening to it as I wanted to hear and find that voice to find Batman. I got as close as I was going to get but then I realized I was actually just chasing Kevin’s voice.“
Linklater eventually developed his own take on the Dark Knight, but finding his Bruce Wayne voice was even more challenging. “It’s certainly taken longer to feel comfortable with Bruce than Batman – there’s a lot more Batman than Bruce in the first season,” he said. “But that’s what is also helpful about it being week two of Batman, is that it’s also Hamish’s Batman week two. I haven’t been on the job very long so I’m finding it as I go along.“
The first season of Batman: Caped Crusader is now streaming on Prime Video and has received rave reviews. Our own Jessica Dwyer enjoyed the series despite it not meeting her expectations. “Did my hopes get dashed with this latest animated Dark Knight when I finally watched it? No, but I also wasn’t overwhelmed either,” Dwyer wrote in her review. “As I said, there’s something really special about the original series that would be hard to recapture. Batman: Caped Crusader is trying really hard to do that, and there’s hope that it will eventually get there.” She also had plenty of praise for Linklater’s performance, saying, “I can’t say enough how much I love Hamish Linklater’s voice here. I’m not ashamed to say I teared up a little bit. I hope he knows how much that means to fans of the OG.” You can check out the rest of Dwyer’s review right here.
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Yellowstone will be coming to an epic conclusion with its upcoming final season, but the franchise will continue with a new spinoff that is attracting some big names. It has previously been rumoured that Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell have been in talks to star in the new series, and TVLine reports that Patrick J. Adams (Suits) is in talks to join them.
A Paramount Network representative declined to comment on the report, but the outlet states that the deals for Pfeiffer, Russell, and Adams are close to being finalized. They also added a few potential plot details for the spinoff. Once known as 2024, the Yellowstone spinoff is now “tentatively” titled The Madison and is “rumoured to follow wealthy matriarch Stacy Clyburn and her family as they leave New York City and head to Montana in the wake of her husband and brother-in-law’s tragic deaths in a plane crash.“
The new series’ ensemble cast is still being assembled, with Beau Garrett (The Good Doctor) said to be among them. Production is expected to kick off later this month in Montana, New York, and Texas for a 2025 premiere.
You might recall that Matthew McConaughey was previously announced to be leading the spinoff, but later reports stated that the actor wouldn’t sign a deal until he saw a script from creator Taylor Sheridan. TVLine’s report doesn’t know if Russell is taking the role McConaughey was up for or if this will be a new character. It was also previously reported that Yellowstone stars Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, and Luke Grimes would be reprising their roles of Rip, Beth, and Kayce in the new show.
As for the final season of Yellowstone, also known as season 5 part 2, it will officially premiere on November 10th. Despite some hope that Kevin Costner might return, the actor officially shut the door last month. “I want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love, I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future.” Costner explained. “It was something that really changed me. I loved it. And I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning and I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop and I’ll see you at the movies.“
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